Subject: Re: Daumier-Smith and Empathy
From: Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Date: Wed Jul 25 2001 - 05:09:05 GMT
'... sometimes the writer doesn't know himself all
the meanings of his book ...'
Since I make some of my money telling people stuff about
themselves that I claim to know better than they do, I have
to agree - to an extent - with Valérie.
But only to a very limited extent. A great critic may
occasionally be able to stand back & pick out patterns
in a man's oeuvre - relating them sometimes, perhaps,
it to the known facts of his life. But the smart asses who
pontificate confidently about the underlying meanings
in a book - through the identification of a lot of clichéd
symbols - these guys should be taken out & put up against
a wall.
Unfortunately, it's a dead easy practice &, so, much favoured
by academics. And then reproduced by their students like so
many parrots hoping for an extra lump of sugar.
Scottie B.
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